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September 20, 2020 ·

A Mile a Day for 30-ish Days: What I Learned

Health & Fitness

I decided to do a mile-a-day for 30 days after following an influencer, Magen Reaves, who was posting about her own commitment to walk a mile a day for 30 days. I watched on her stories as more and more started tagging her about joining the movement, literal movement, and thought why not?

By this point in Covid, all my fitness attempts had gone out the window. I was gung-ho with at-home workouts in the beginning. It was easy, it was going to be short term until gyms and studios opened back up. Well weeks turned into months and the longevity of Covid settled in. With it came a sense of powerlessness and a sort of doom. Where was this thing headed? How LONG would it take to get back to normal? Will it EVER get back to normal? And I lost motivation. It was easy to just sit around the house, do my work, keep up with bare minimum domestic duties and that was about it. There was no need to get up and actually go anywhere.

I watched the number creep up on the scale and I saw my body changing before my eyes. I know we’re not suppose to focus on the number on the scale, but rather how we FEEL.  I can tell you that the number on the scale and how I looked in the mirror made me FEEL disappointed.  I had worked so hard pre-Covid to try and get in shape. I was still a work in progress, but I let myself down by undoing all the progress I had made. And it didn’t help that at 40-something years old, I knew it was going to be REAL hard to get back where I was. But I had to start SOMEWHERE, and this mile-a-day thing seemed like a smaller goal I would be able to tackle.

Well, almost….I made it to about 23 days. Then Labor Day weekend happened and I was gone the whole weekend for soccer tournaments, and it all went out the window. I guess I could add up all the walking to and from the fields and around to get food and our walk through Ikea, but that felt like cheating to me so I gave up after 23 days.  Yes, I gave up. But the journey did teach me some things as I move forward in this everyday road to healthy:

Baby steps are still steps in the right direction: Taking 20 minutes out of my day for quick walks were baby steps to getting me moving again. By having a smaller goal that was easier to achieve, I felt a sense of accomplishment that kept me motivated to continue towards my bigger goal of “getting in shape.”

Stop and smell the flowers: I almost mean this literally!  Some of my walks I was by myself and made a conscious effort to take in the sights, sounds and smells around me. So much of my day is in front of a screen.  I mean, my background on my laptop is mountain scenery, but it’s not quite the same! But on my walks, I would allow my mind to focus on the present and could feel the weight of the day being lifted. Mental health is just as important, if not more important, than physical health, and why can’t they go hand-in-hand.

Use a support system: Find your support system and use them to motivate you. Sometimes the only reason I walked was because my husband pushed me to go on a walk with him. When you have a support system to encourage you, achieving goals is easier.

Find a way to hold yourself accountable: For me this was posting about it on social media. I walked around my house for a mile one night because I wanted to be able to post about it!  Habit trackers in a notebook or on a calendar is another way you can “check off” your accomplishments. Even just talking to someone about what you are trying to achieve will motivate you to keep moving forward.

Be kind to yourself: It’s okay to miss a daily goal every once in a while, or fall short of a longer goal like I did. Life happens and sometimes we can’t do everything we want to do on our list. Forgiving myself for not being able to do it all is something I’m still working on.

The everyday road to healthy isn’t perfect. Some days will be better than others. Let’s just keeping taking our baby steps in the right direction.

Stay healthy!

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  1. Celery Juice for 30 Days — Everyday Road to Healthy says:
    November 12, 2020 at 9:18 am

    […] my 3rd 30-day challenge. My first was walking a mile-day for 30 days, which you can read about here, and the other, which I haven’t shared yet, was intermittent fasting for 30 days. I picked 30 […]

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Good morning! My morning is fueled by: ☀️sunl Good morning! My morning is fueled by:

☀️sunlight
🌳fresh air
☕️coffee

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Cheers! It’s my first pumpkin spice latte of the Cheers! It’s my first pumpkin spice latte of the season! 🧡 Here’s how I cut down on calories when ordering:

✴️ order a tall instead of a grande (-80 cal)
✴️ hold the whipped cream (-70 cal)
✴️ swap out regular milk for non-fat milk (-50 cal)
✴️ reduce the pumps of syrup…I’m not a sugar-free syrup girl and I don’t think 1 less pump changes the flavor (-30 cal per pump)

I only indulge once, maybe twice a week, but these customizations keep me on track! My tall pumpkin spice latte comes in at 150 calories vs. 300 calories! 🧡

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I don’t have time to spend on my makeup in the m I don’t have time to spend on my makeup in the morning so here’s my 5 minute clean makeup routine explained in under a minute! 🤗 Featuring:

•Beautycounter Skin Twin Foundation
•Beautycounter Lid Glow Cream Shadow
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Laundry is a perpetual chore in my house. 🧺 Jus Laundry is a perpetual chore in my house. 🧺 Just when I think I'm finished with all the loads, more dirty clothes appear and it's time to start another load. Unfortunately my swap for today doesn't fix that 😆, but it does fix the need for a non-toxic, natural and affordable fabric softener. I'm no where near being 100% chemical-free in our house, but I've made swaps here and there that make me feel pretty good about the everyday changes I'm making to a healthier lifestyle. ⁠
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Go to the link in our bio @everydayroadtohealthy to read more.⁠
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#everydayroadtohealthy #healthylifestyle #cleanliving #nontoxicliving
Still don’t love my wrinkles ☺️, but when I Still don’t love my wrinkles ☺️, but when I saw this quote, I thought it was fitting to share on so many levels. It’s definitely optimistic and happy like how a lot of his music made us feel! 🏝️😄

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For the month of September, I will be donating pro For the month of September, I will be donating proceeds from all my Beautycounter sales (plus a match by my company Ashburn Accounting) to MIB Agents, a pediatric osteosarcoma nonprofit, in memory of Deena’s son, Owen, who lost his cancer battle in 2012 at the age of 16. 

From 9/5-9/14, I will host a virtual pop-up on our ✨Clean Beauty by Erth✨ Facebook group page where I will do some concentrated posts about Beautycounter, as well as hold a raffle for free products. If you or someone you know has wanted to try clean skincare or learn more about Beautycounter, please join the page before Sep 5th by going to the link in our profile @everydayroadtohealthy or message me about joining. You can also just order directly from me through my personal link from 9/1/23-9/30/23 and any proceeds I make during the whole month of September will be donated.

Thanks for helping me give to something that means a lot to me!

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Hi 👋 I’m Angela. Welcome to my everyday road Hi 👋 I’m Angela. Welcome to my everyday road to a healthy-ish lifestyle! 😆 

I will be the big 5-0 next year 🎉 and I really want to be in better shape by the time I get there. Most days I *think* about exercising, but I’m constantly sabotaging my own efforts. My biggest problem is I don’t prioritize my exercise time. I tried adding it as a meeting on my calendar, but I know it’s a “flexible” meeting so I’m always cutting into that time, to the point where I tell myself I no longer have the time. 🤷🏻‍♀️ And if I sit down at my desk in the morning and start checking work emails, the probability that I’ll fit in a workout goes down exponentially.

Today I chose not to sit down at my desk right away. Instead, I saw my kid off to school then went straight to the gym. Everything else waited until I got home, and the rest of the day I was able to focus without feeling guilty that I had not worked out. 

Today was just one day. I don’t know if it will stick, but I hope it does. I feel better about this plan than any other I have tried. It feels sustainable. 💪🏼

How about you? How do you make sure you fit in time for your health? How do you motivate yourself?

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I’m not getting any younger, and neither is my s I’m not getting any younger, and neither is my skin. The dry and spotty mature skin struggle is real. But I am convinced this PM routine that I do every other night, along with my daily AM vitamin C serum,  helped me with my melasma. 

Every other night I use:

✅Counter+ Lotus Glow Cleansing Balm
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It’s Veggie Bag delivery day from South Mountain It’s Veggie Bag delivery day from South Mountain Creamery! I don’t usually go online to see what’s coming so it’s almost always a surprise. But I love it because once I see what I have, it really helps with planning for the next week.
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